Will we finally get to hear Bombur say something? And will it be profound? After all the silence (and comic relief) I think he should say something profound.

And Bifur too.

Oh, I do love the Brothers Ur... Bofur clearly has more than a funny side... all three of these guys are not Line of Durin Tained Ninja Warrior Jedi Dwarves, jso it would be great to see them do something that shows deeper character... the sort of thing Tolkien talks about somewhere in his letters or bio of something... what he saw in the trenches of WWI, in which the "little guys" the ordinary guys, did heroic and self-sacrificing things. Go outside and play...

Whew, there are lots of opportunities. First let's look at who already has some.

Thorin - consistently and will continue to. Kili - charging in to rescue Bilbo from the trolls. Dwalin - he's hard to miss in any battle scene. Plus he plays a fiddle. Bofur - actually proved very handy in the mountains, though there could certainly be more.

Some obviously hail from the books. Fili and Kili at the Battle of Five Armies is HUGE.

Dwalin & Gloin - I suspect breakout stars in both anti-Elf sentiment and Five Armies bad-assery. Balin - this one is obvious - he's the only one brave enough to go halfway with Bilbo into the Dragon's Lair. Fili - does Bilbo rescue him or one of the sons of Groin? Hard to recall. Could be first to help with spiders. Bofur - when his brother falls into the dark river. But as the 'mountaineer' of the group, the miner, I bet he's integral to winching up the camp from the base of the Lonely Mountain and escaping Smaug just in time. Bifur - I definitely think Five Armies. Probably rescuing another dwarf or Bilbo from a marauding Orc. Dori & Nori - I'm going to say Lake-town, actually. Jackson pegged them as merchant-class so they might barter for boats and supplies. Oin - I suspect he'll be the one who talks to the Raven, and intelligence-gathering is a big deal. Also, he's the group's medic - while I suspect they all gather in the tent with Thorin as he dies, Oin will be the one who bandaged his wounds and tends to him. Bombur & Ori - these I don't know. I'm expecting Jackson to surprise me with them. There's not a lot of battle in film two, and Bombur is a comical burden on them but we should get to know him a lot better. Ori is a mystery. The quiet one, you just know he'll have abig telegraphed moment.

So what I'm quite curious about is whether or not any of the "heroic moments" didn't make the theatrical cut and are in fact in the first film's Extended Edition. I could imagine more could be done in Goblin Town, or even during the Five Fir Trees sequence. And there's obviously a lot of Rivendell which didn't make the cut.

Well, Ori is the writer/chronicler. Maybe he's the one that inspires Bilbo to write down all his adventures in the Red Book. That would be nice to see something like Ori giving Bilbo a small gift of pens or a nice leather-bound journal he made himself specially for the hobbit.

I know it's mentioned in the AUJ Visual Companion that Bifur is indeed looking for the Orc that put the axe in his head! I wonder if that will actually make it into the movie, or if it's just a detail to round out his personality? I mean, between Azog and Bolg there are sure to be enough Orc revenge arcs already. Want to chat? AIM me at Yami Liokaiser!